Mintlaw to Peterhead

The new bypass has made the countryside around Aberdeen more accessible and I had a chance to spend a few hours on the A950 route.

The spirit lifts driving up to the roundabout in Mintlaw as this time it was graced by a Silent Silhouette, acknowledging 100 years since 1918; the only one I have seen in North East Scotland. Off to the left is Mintlaw Station leading to Aden Country Park with Farming Museum and also Old Deer including fines, Aden Country Park, Aikley Brae Stone Circle… But I turned right towards Longside following the not quite visible track of the old railway line. I passed an old airfield, WWII, now used for storing Oil & Gas parts went through a new suburb with ASDA and cheery staff over the hill and down, past signs to the Peterhead Prison Museum and along someway to the Free Parking.

I went walking round waiting for the sun to rise and a bank to open. Even before nine the coffee shops were packed and I was soon on my way back from the harbour having read an interesting display on canons. I wondered why an elderly couple had stopped and were looking back behind me, eastwards. Then I was sat opposite the teller watching, out the window, as the sunlight moved down some statue pillar, displacing the gloom. There should be a Spirit lifting app to tell you when and where to stand in order to get a blast of sunshine shining down some serendipitously constructed walkway, I wondered.

(to be continued, with other byways)